Honest Reviews. Smarter Play

Board Games Reviews

Gwent Board Game Review

absolutely love The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and still regard it as one of the best games I’ve ever played. Since it first launched in 2015, I have come back to the game again and again. One game-within-the-game is Gwent, a card game played with cards you would collect on your travels. Hachette sent me home from GenCon 2025 with a copy of Gwent, the physical card game, and now I’m here to let you know whether it holds up…

Read More

Star Wars Unlimited: Twin Suns and other Accessories

Every once in a while a Star Wars Unlimited box arrives at the house and I’m always excited to open them and check out the latest Star Wars Unlimited release. This time around, I was shocked to open the box and not find the newest release, but instead a bunch of accessories, both for the Twin Suns format, and a brand new base-health dial that I think will be a massive hit. Let’s take a look! I am going to…

Read More

Kinfire Council Board Game Review

Kinfire Council is a game that, on the surface, I shouldn’t really like. It has a semi-cooperative element, which I dislike. It has negotiation, which I dislike. And it has bidding, which I REALLY dislike. All of that aside, it is part of the Kinfire universe, a universe I’ve come to really enjoy through playing Kinfire Delve and Kinfire Chronicles. That alone spurred me forward into this experience, and despite my reservations, I had an absolute blast. There might appear…

Read More

Food for Thought Board Game Review

I’ve had the pleasure of playing Food for Thought for a couple weeks now, and the number one thing that was blowing my mind was, “Why is there not more chatter about this game?” I assumed that after GenCon 2025, there would be more unboxing videos, reviews, etc. for this game, which I do realize only delivered to backers a few months ago. After a quick chat with my PR rep, I learned that Food for Thought was really just…

Read More

Gloomies Board Game Review

Gloomies has a really eye-catching production with tons of little wooden pieces that pop when on the table. Ravensburger has been putting out some fantastic games with great table presence, while also keeping the games simple and accessible to all. Gloomies is a card driven game, which I generally really like, but does the gameplay hold up over time? Let’s take a look! This card driven game is broken down into two phases: the growing phase where you will be…

Read More

The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship Board Game Review

The Lord of the Rings is one of my favourite book and movie franchises of all time, and yes, I even like the Hobbit films! Whenever a Lord of the Rings themed game comes out, I’m probably going to buy it, and I’m probably going to love it. We have had a great run of The Lord of the Rings in board game form in the past year, with games like The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the…

Read More

The Peak Team Rangers Components Overview and Impressions

I’ve recently found that a lot of board game fans are not familiar with titles from Matagot and shamefully I must add myself to that list. However, looking at their catalogue, I was pretty intrigued by their lineup of games. The Peak Team Rangers looked particularly cool, and thanks to Matagot, I was able to pickup a copy at GenCon 2025 for review. Generally, the quality of production is company wide; if a company produced a high quality game, it’s…

Read More

The Sandcastles of Burgundy Board Game Review

I’m a huge fan of designers taking games that adults love and creating a kids version of the game. Sometimes the game is more in name than theme, but I still love the idea of introducing my kids to the Jr. version of a game they might play later. The Sandcastles of Burgundy is a fantastic kids game with variety and ways to make the game more difficult, and overall I think it’s a fabulous kids experience that adults will…

Read More

Zenith Components Overview and Impressions

I’m generally not a huge fan of games that have strong take-that mechanics, which means a lot of dueling 2-player games don’t appeal to me. At GenCon 2025, I had the chance to get a quick overview of how it worked from a Luma Imports representative, and I was actually intrigued. Not only did the game look fantastic, but the card play and engine building looked really interesting as well. It will be the table presence, though, that will get…

Read More

Yokohama Duel Components Overview and Impressions

The deeper we get into 2025, the less likely I am to get excited about yet another duel game; however, when companies take massive euro-style games and turn them into something bitesize and for two players, I’m still going to be intrigued. Yokohama Duel doesn’t have the biggest box, but for $35 USD, you are getting a ton of components and content, and hopefully, the Yokohama feel! What I’m most impressed by in this production is how much content Synapses…

Read More